Energy and Environment
UNDP’S SUPPORT FOR ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AND SUSTAINABLE ENERGY IN IRAN (from undp website)

Energy and environment are essential for sustainable development. The poor are disproportionately affected by environmental degradation and lack of access to clean, affordable energy services. These issues are also global, as climate change, loss of biodiversity and ozone layer depletion cannot be addressed by countries acting alone. UNDP helps countries strengthen their capacity to address these challenges at global, national and community levels, seeking out and sharing best practices, providing innovative policy advice and linking partners through pilot projects that help poor people build sustainable livelihoods.

The majority of environment initiatives are funded by two trust funds: the Global Environment Facility (GEF) and the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer (MP). The ongoing portfolios of GEF and MP projects amount to about $12 million and $1 million respectively. UNDP also allocates its core funding in support of strategic interventions within the Energy and Environment Programme areas. These are primarily formulated to address policy and upstream issues.

The Global Environment Facility (GEF)


Established in 1991, GEF is an independent financial organization that provides grants to developing countries for projects that benefit the global environment and promote sustainable livelihoods in local communities. With funding from the GEF, UNDP is supporting the Government’s efforts to help mitigate and adapt to global climate change, conserve globally significant species and ecosystems, put a stop to the manufacturing and stockpiling of harmful Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs) and help destroy existing stockpiles, stem the tide of degradation of international water bodies, as well as halt and reverse land degradation processes. Climate Change is the most serious global environmental issue and a potential threat to human survival in the long-term. Evidence is accumulating that global climate is undergoing change with a rise of 0.6 degree centigrade over the last century. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) projects that average global temperatures will increase by 1.4 to 5.8 degrees centigrade. Such Temperature rises are consistent with scientific expectations concerning the increasing concentration of greenhouse gases (GHGs) in the atmosphere, chief among which is Carbon Dioxide. The increase in global temperatures will be accompanied by rising sea levels and a potential increase in climate variability, such as extremes of temperature, precipitation and storm activity with adverse impacts on important economic sectors such as agriculture.

UNDP supports government efforts to mitigate global climate change through projects that help in stabilizing GHG concentrations in atmosphere. These include promotion of renewable energies such as wind energy and cutting GHG emissions from Iran’s industrial sector. More recently, UNDP has helped in concluding a cost-benefit analysis of Iran’s accession to the Kyoto Protocol (KP) and is planning to follow-up with a capacity development initiative to boost national institutional and technical capacities for the implementation of the Clean Development Mechanism of Kyoto Protocol. Through co-funding provided by the GEF, UNDP is well positioned to support the government’s efforts in identification of vulnerabilities to climate change and implementation of adaptation measures.



Biodiversity refers to the incredible variety of life found in our planet. Life on earth is so diverse that we really have no idea how many species there are. Estimates range between 5 million and 30 million, but some biologists believe the figure may be as high as 100 million. Biodiversity is central to our existence. We derive much of the food we eat from species that were once wild, and we continue to rely on wild species to genetically improve domestic varieties of corn, tomatoes, and other food staples. We also use plants and animals found in natural ecosystems to develop new drugs for the treatment of various diseases. In addition, biodiversity provides us with many amenities, such as bird-watching, ecotourism, fishing, and others. Despite the central value of biodiversity to humanity, humans are currently destroying natural ecosystems at such a rate that many biologists fear that in a few decades we will cause an unprecedented number of extinctions.



UNDP is supporting the Government’s efforts to conserve Iran’s system of wetland protected areas through systematically removing threats to biodiversity and ensuring that lessons learned at two project sites - Lake Uromiyeh and Lake Parishan- are replicated at other globally significant wetland sites in the country. UNDP support through the GEF extends to other biodiversity hotspots such as the central Zagros mountain ecosystems within a project site that envelops four provinces. Another project for sustainable management of arid ecosystems focuses on the conservation of the Asiatic cheetah, its habitat and associated biota in the Semnan and Yazd provinces.


A UNDP project to sustainably manage arid ecosystems focuses on the conservation of the Asiatic Cheetahs, its habitat and associated biota in the Semnan and Yazd provinces.


Land degradation is occurring worldwide with severe impacts on poor rural communities in more than 110 countries and affecting as much as two third of the world’s agricultural land. Suffering in most parts from arid and semi-arid climate, Iran is seriously vulnerable to the land degradation phenomena.


Through funding from the GEF, the government is being supported in participatory rehabilitation of a drylands in the South Khorrasan province. The project aims to enhance the level of carbon storage in soil and vegetation through participatory management of rangelands in Hosseinabad; hence reducing desertification and improving livelihoods of the local communities. To help Iran build national capacities needed for the sound implementation of its National Action Plan under the UNCCD, GEF support through UNDP is being sought to assess the current land degradation situation.


* The GEF currently finances enabling activities related to the conventions on biodiversity, climate change, and persistent organic pollutants. Enabling activity projects provide financing for the preparation of:
· A plan, strategy, or program to fulfil commitments under a global environmental convention.
· A national communication or report to a relevant convention.
· Through three separate enabling activity project, UNDP supports the fulfilment of government’s obligations to implement the aforementioned conventions.
International Waters


Transboundary river basins, lakes, wetlands, estuaries and desert oases blanket 45 percent of the world’s land surface and are home to nearly 60 per cent of the world’s population.


Since 1992, UNDP-GEF has partnered with governments, intergovernmental organisations and other concerned parties to support the creation and strengthening of multilateral institutions to protect many of the world’s shared large marine ecosystems and transboundary rivers and lakes. Iran is currently involved in two such programmes, namely the Caspian Environment Programme (CEP) and the Kura/Aras Basin Programme.


The Caspian Environment Programme (CEP) started implementation in 1998 and is now going through its second phase to support the implementation of the Strategic Action Programme (SAP) agreed to by the five littoral Caspian countries in the first phase. CEP has also assisted the adoption of the UNEP-sponsored Caspian Environment Convention that sets the stage for further collaboration among countries. The Kura/Aras Basin is a complex fresh water system mainly composed of two large rivers: Kura and Aras. Through UNDP, GEF funding is being allocated to address the transboundary environmental issues of this river basin ecosystem that involves Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia and Iran.





The Montreal Protocol


Since its inception in 1987, The Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer is viewed as a best example of collaborative efforts to address a pressing global environmental issue. Through the Protocol, the member states of the UN have committed themselves to eliminate the use of ozone depleting substances in both developed and developing countries as per an internationally agreed time schedule. Financial assistance provided through the Multilateral Fund for the Implementation of the Montreal Protocol to developing country members to strengthen national capacities and meet obligations.

Through the MP programme, UNDP has helped Iran build sound capacities and comply with the global commitments as well as phase out the ozone depleting chemicals in various sectors.